Greetings, and welcome to the main wiki of Elftown's first official contest marathon!
This is a series of competitions that aims to create the best possible informative wiki-pages on creature_list about different creatures.
These are the general rules for the image and text-producing contests, but the some contests might have special rules.

Current Session Open:

Nothing right now! Stay tuned!

The Image Rules:

1. NO STEALING ART!
The image must be yours to give to Elftown. It means that either you draw it or everyone that has made any part of the image agrees to submit it to the competition. Remember that there are 10,000 art-lovers here and we will always find out if you have edited someone else's image, instead of creating your own. Then we will be very, very angry.

2. QUALITY-ISSUES
The goal of the competition is to get the best possible quality presentation of the creature in question. You're very welcome to try to enter, but if you're hoping that a funny, unique or personal image will give you the victory, then you are in the wrong competition. Here we just want the best and most typical image. (But the writers will be happy to link to your puking dragon kids-page if it's good!)

Drawings can be either new or previously made, but they have to fit the creature exactly. But, if you have a drawing that doesn't exactly fit (like a female orc, when the contest is about "orc"), it might still be greatly appreciated and needed as an illustration for the text.

Any entry that does not follow the above will be removed.

The title of the art is generally expected to be quite "boring" (Like "Dragon" or "Dragon on a cliff"). Again: If you want to draw something like a dragon dreaming about kissing a knight, then these competitions are the wrong place.

3. EACH MEMBER MAY SUBMIT ONE (1) ENTRY PER CREATURE PER ART OR PHOTO CATEGORY.
Exceptions might be offered if there is a valid reason for it. But if you do submit more than one image, you will greatly lower your chance of winning, as the votes for your style will be spread out on two entries.

4. ALL IMAGES MUST BE UPLOADED TO ELFTOWN!
To upload your image full-size you can use the feature 'Upload a folder of images' that is shown on your house.
This feature allows you to upload one, multiple images or zip-files in their original size to a wikipage.<URL:upload_zip.html>
Once you click this link you can follow the instructions. See also uploading images.

5. SUBJECT MATTER:
Since the winners will be featured on wikis, images that depict graphic violence, pornography or other disturbing actions will not be accepted. Only images that fit the theme will be allowed.

All mediums are be accepted, but no kids dressed as dragons or annoying GIF-animations! Make it a serious and informative image!

6. Permission
You don't lose the right to your art, but by submitting it in these competitions, you allow Elftown to use the art in its wikis.

PLEASE NOTE ABOUT PHOTO ENTRIES:Upload a great looking photograph of the typical creature being featured or a realistically looking photo-manipulation or a dressed up human in case you can't find the real creature being featured.

In regards to 'stock photos':

The stock image has to be that of an Elftown member and for a photo entry, there has to be a substantial amount added/done with it to enter it. - The Council.

Good writers needed! Please review:

The Writing Rules

The Writing Rules:

This competition is open for: individuals and group work (collaborations).

Goal of the competition: To create a set of wiki-pages for the contest creature being featured, as informative, good and creative as possible, by any means that are not illegal.

Competition winner: The one that has contributed the most.

1. NO STEALING WRITINGS!
Any submitted work MUST be written by you or be texts that are free to use and rewrite. Wikipedia-texts for example are such texts. Do give credit to the original writer though! Don't pretend that you wrote the text if you didn't! Use links if it's better than copying the text. Linking to other submitters' work is encouraged.If anyone is found to be stealing someone else's work, they will be disqualified from this and all future official writing contests.

2. QUALITY ISSUES:
The end result should be written in perfect English. If you have difficulty with correct spelling, grammar, and other usage of English, make sure that some proof readers edit your written piece correctly for you. (If you can't find any, try Editing Assistance - Elftown.)

3. ABOUT YOUR WORK:
To get started, you can write your own description from scratch. For the finishing touch, we additionally want to see images and links added. Include the texts others have written, too, if possible.

4. SUBJECT MATTER:
The description must be about the creature being featured.
No pornography or excessive violence please. Use your common sense as to what would be acceptable and what would not be; but the judges (the Competition Crew & Council) will make the final decision.

5. LENGTH:
The description consists of two parts:
- An introduction/summary: It must be no less than 50 words and no more than 300.
- An in-depth description: Here you can add the links of other web-pages, images, sub-wiki-pages, related info, and of course, a more in-depth description of the creature. It should be as short as possible, but still contain as much information as possible, and it must be divided in a constructive way.

6. AMOUNT:
The amount of work submitted by an individual is not set in stone. You may submit an intro paragraph, a part of the description, or even an aspect of the creature will do. We do not expect you to come up with an entire info page with sub-pages, but if you do that would be awesome!

As for group partners, a little more work than that of an individual is expected. A fair distribution of the workload with each member is the best way to get it done properly.

7. SHORT STORIES:
If you're submitting a short story, the story must be no less than 500 words and no more than 5000 words.

Judging:

If there is group work submitted, the group will vote on who did the most work within their group.
The Contest Crew and Council will vote on who did the most work in the final result.

Writing participants in this marathon will receive a bookworm badge, and winners will receive a coloured version of the same (or a green/coloured Masters of Building, if they are committed writing donors).

How the competitions are run:

We will try to start up 1-3 competitions per month and they will run in parallel. We'll start up slow though.

The procedure is as follows:

1) An entrywiki will be opened, that focuses on a specific creature, for example, ECM pegasus.

3) The writers and anyone else that want to help start working on descriptions of the creature, generally collect information, links, and argue about how the final page should look like. They might use images from the image-contest, but the main image can't be finally decided until that competition is finished. They will put the page that later on will be put on pegasus on ECM pegasus text, but all the subpages like, for example, pegasus scifi can have the final name right from the start.

4) A contest will be open for entries until the deadline is reached (about 1-3 months) or the writers feel that their work is done for now. The deadlines might be extended, if needed to get a good winner.

Graphic participants to this marathon will receive a squirrel badge, and winners will receive a coloured version of the same (or a green/coloured Masters of Building if they are committed art donors) and they will be credited on the final version of the wiki-page. In rare cases, multiple winners might be selected.

Instructions for non-crew helpers:

The marathon invites non-crew members to help maintaining the entry wikis and lead the writing-work. What we really want are people who say that they have prepared the wiki-pages and that the competitions are ready to start... But we also need people that have proven that they know how the competitions work and generally can help out. No "What can I do?"-people, please!

If you are helping in some way, write a comment on this page! (Like: "I created ECM foo monster, is it OK?" or "I think the rules suck, so I've written better rules")

2007-10-18[nehirwen]: that's okey, and if there is another creature first, I'm willing to make those wiki's too ^^

2007-10-18[SilverFire]: It would be a very long poll if it were to include all mythical creatures. :P

2007-10-18[nehirwen]: yes, I did look at The Creature List to find the Nymph, that's why I made it, I didn't knew about the poll. *looks at poll* isn't it an idea for me to make the elf or the fairy/fae ecm contest?

2007-10-18[nehirwen]: oops, sorry ;) and all the others of the poll too?

2007-10-27[xido]: I would love to see all sorts of dragons from all sorts of backgrounds, and even some dragon-related creatures (since they take many forms in many mythologies around our own world, let alone the fantasy realms). Great question, [Mom]! I am really excited to know that you have an interest in joining! *hugs*

ECM Nymph looks okay, but is it anywhere on the list of potential to-do's? D&D classifies Nymphs as a type of Fey (Fae, Fairyfolk, Sylvans, etc.), and they are identified as spirits of nature in mythology. Because of that, I personally would consider them a faerie (kin or folk), and potentially part of that contest. Or, of course, you could wait until we get to that point on the CL... Which means you might be waiting a while.... Anyways, I commented on the Nymph ECM page potential. Please see that comment.

Sorry I am not around much, guys. I am hoping to change that soon. I have been doing a lot of work on my own things, and on some RP content concepts that I am seeking representation for.
*loves Elftown and misses her*

I have a semi-connection now, so I can be on every so often again. Starting a new job, hoping to find a place to live (again), and hoping to make money doing what I love: art and writing. Wish me luck!

On that note, I wish all entrants in the ECM Dragon the best of luck! I will keeping an eye on the new entries, and can't wait to see what all of you have in store for us. You all rock! x.o)
-will

2007-10-27[Skydancer]: Nymphs are not fairies, and dnd is not the reality of human mythology. Nymphs are the immediate spirits of the life of a place. Those that "are" the spirits of the trees, plants, waters, rocks, and places of a natural area. A nymph such as a hammadryad may be a host to fairy folk, but they are definately two different species, according to everything I know about them. Of course real fairies, in mythology are generally not friendly to man and in fact tend to be quite dangerous if not downright lethal :) Just my opinion from what I know of course.

2007-10-27[Skydancer]: I will if I can keep my energies up dig out some of my books and references and see what I can put up as actual legendary and mythological spirits and individual cultural information. Most of my knowledge is celtic, briton, germantic, norse, irish and of course native american. It would be very interesting to me, if we could have some serious input from natives of the various countries and what they might be able to find in their own libraries from their own legends and tales of their people. :)

2007-10-28[SilverFire]: I agree with Skydancer, nymphs and faeries are different, they have their origins in different cultures and myth-sets. I was going to comment on D&D, but I see Skydancer beat me to that too. <3

2007-10-28[Skydancer]: Well, D&D is a venerable game system, but basically none of it is based on fact or real cultural legends and myth. Its a little like taking World of Warcraft as the basis for information about World War Two.